Annex
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DFID FROM RECOMMENDATIONS
IN THE TREATMENT TIMEBOMB REPORT
— HIV is a long-term condition and funding
will be needed to maintain progress well beyond the MDGs, even
if the MDGs are achieved. People with HIV need treatment for life.
DFID should work to catalyse discussions with its counterparts
and the multi-lateral organisations it works with to agree on
a common message to drive and maintain progress beyond 2015.
— It is difficult to measure the impact
of prevention and prevention activities can be an easy target
for cuts in a numbers-driven environment. DFID, preferably in
partnership with other key HIV players such as UNAIDS, should
support the development of best-practice recommendations for treatment/prevention
spending ratios. The recommendations would differ for different
epidemic types and there would be an understanding that recommendations
would need to be further adapted locally. They would provide a
starting point for health departments and major donors.
— All donors, including DFID should promote
PMTCT of HIV that is more sophisticated than giving just a single
dose of Nevirapine to expectant mothers. Neverapine is much better
than nothing but too many babies continue to be born HIV+.
— There is a need for research on common
opportunistic infections associated with HIV and the cost of treating
them so that AIDS programmes could include realistic financial
allocations for the treatment of such infections. This fits in
with DFID's integrated approach to health.
— DFID is already working on an independent
analysis of the costs and benefits of various models of pharmaceutical
company access programmes, which we are pleased to see. This was
one of the recommendations in the report.
— DFID should support developing countries
to use their TRIPS flexibilities to promote public health. They
should discourage the adoption of TRIPS+ measures (that typically
limit flexibilities) in European Economic Partnership Agreements
(EPAs) with developing countries. This is an area for consideration
by the Cross-Whitehall Working group, because of its implications
for The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
— DFID should continue to advocate for
the establishment of a UNITAID patent pool for HIV medicines.
— Countries have to make difficult decisions
about the types of treatment they are prepared to fund. For example
they need to decide whether they provide cheap treatments that
are difficult to tolerate and adhere to, but cover more people,
or whether they provide more expensive, more tolerable treatments.
DFID should help fund health economists in its partner countries
who can inform national aids strategies.
— DFID, in communication with its counterparts
from other donor countries and with UNITAID, should look into
the workability of a prize fund for key missing HIV/TB medicines
and diagnostics.
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